Alannah Myles
Toronto-based vocalist Alannah Myles spent much of her early career unsuccessfully shopping for a recording deal in her native Canada, but when she and writing partner Christopher Ward changed tack, targeting an American deal with a David Tyson-produced demo and a video for Just One Kiss, they met with almost instant success. Tyson produced ALANNAH MYLES, an excellent commercial hard rock debut on which the vocalist turned her deep, soulful voice to a variety of material, from gentle acoustic guitar-based ballads to raunchy rock 'n' roll with a power reminiscent of Heart's Ann Wilson. After the years of struggle, the debut ironically took off rapidly in Canada, with Love Is helping Myles achieve major status in just three months, but the slow, steamy raunch of Black Velvet brought much wider success. The raven-haired singer suddenly found herself topping the US singles chart and hitting the Top 3 in the UK as Black Velvet became a worldwide hit. ALANNAH MYLES subsequently became the most successful debut in Canadian music history, selling more than five million copies globally, and Myles proved that she was no mere studio songbird, taking her band out on the road, supporting Robert Plant in the UK. ROCKINGHORSE was a good second effort, but lacked material with the immediacy of her debut, and subsequently failed to repeat its enormous impact.